Oh lol okay 😂😂😂
But still, really thank you for sharing that with us.

One person make complain no use one. They'll likely to close one eye and tell you "Oh, we'll refer this to the relevant department" and then no news after that, as if you complain also no use.

Need to have many many people complain then only they'll do something about it.

Yeah. I encourage you guys to voice out to Astro about this.
But as usual, do expect that the technical department person will never understand what you're trying to say, and they'll assume your enquiry is about "poor satellite signal" problem, which has the "pixelation" of poor video quality (low video bitrate), and then suggests to send a technician to visit your premise and check.

Totally not related stuff, but they push back the blame to you, treat you like stupid. Normal la, work in technical department, but not knowledgeable or don't know in technical stuff but have to convince customers like they know.

Oh yes... Lowyat forum is just a discussion and sharing platform, not the main place to complain...

What I'm trying to say is, don't expect Astro will do something about it for sure. Because based on their track record, they are no much different than similar companies like TM. You know, once complain then they kept quiet, expecting you to follow up with them manually, take many weeks to months to respond, like expecting you to forget about it.

It's been many years already, still the same attitude.

Complain, yes we still have to complain. I've already complain to them long ago, until now still same. Not even a little improvement.

Welcome to Astro.

You talk too technical to them, they won't even understand.
The best of the best solution is someone are able to directly talk to the broadcasting technical engineer for Astro, the person in charge for transmitting Astro channels to customers. Then only we'll know and they'll know on what's going on and know what we're trying to say.
Even if complain to MCMC, both parties including Astro will give you the same exact or similar statement as what you mentioned. Good la, I'm not the only one that realise this.

But then, I don't have any direct contact with the people there. If I have, I would have talk to them long ago.

But they'll likely to say, "We reduce the video quality a little tiny bit, because overall HD quality is still satisfactory and many customers did not realise the difference".

So they're assuming that for those that realise the HD quality drop, should just accept the fact that they do this to accommodate more HD channels in one transponder (from 8 to 10 then to 12 HD channels). Save bandwidth and cost.
If like that, they might as well reduce every customer's subscription fees by 20% lor... Big savings for customer also. Win win for both parties. People pay for HD, you reduce the quality. What kind of logic...

Woah... You asked for the Ultra Box, or they just offer it to you?
Next step? Err, just wait?

Do note that if you're using PVR box, and it's replaced to the Ultra Box, you can't retrieve/transfer the recordings that you've previously made, except those that uses Astro Cloud recording.

Due to broadcast rights, if that particular channel is only meant for India, then it shall only can viewed for India, and nowhere else.
It's not just about money, but like intellectual property and other legal stuffs.
If the channel was to made available outside India, that's how a dedicated regional feed comes in. The programming, schedule and content are expected to be different than the original India feed, which is not surprising to know.

Not just Indian content. It's also the same as Chinese channels on Astro, including but not limited to TVB Jade, TVB Xing He, TVBS Asia, CTI Asia, Phoenix Chinese Channel,...
all these are international/region feed channels, e.g. Asia feed.
Another example, even KBS World channel is also an international/regional feed.
You can't be expecting Astro to bring in KBS 1 and KBS 2 channels just because KBS World doesn't offer the content programming that you would expect from KBS channel. It's because of broadcast intellectual rights.

There's some exceptions however, like CCTV 4 and Makkal TV... But ask yourself, do you like the content shown on channels like these?
It's mostly those general, informative channels that targets international audiences.

Anyway, we as customer, no need to think so much about it.
For Malaysian Indians, you have the option to go for Videocon d2h. Or else, non-legal IPTV streaming service is out there for you to choose from.
Undoubtedly, that's much easier and faster compared to Indian viewers complain to Astro, although it's not the proper way.

Very common practice la this one... 24 months contract...
Every pay TV service would do the same thing to tight a rope on customer's leg, or pay hefty penalty fees to free the rope.

This post has been edited by joshhd: Nov 7 2019, 07:55 PM

Great
Did they mention to you that is there any additional UHD service fees will be charged? Or no additional monthly charges?

...and only landed houses for now.
Even for those who stay in MDUs (high rise buildings), doesn't matter using own individual dish or centralised dish, also cannot.

Do take note of these:
1) You should/must tell them that you're using a UHD TV, or else they won't give you access to "Astro UHD" channel on CH780.
Meaning if you go to that channel, it'll show "Subscription Required" even you're using Ultrabox. And nope, they're not gonna let you watch the downscale version of UHD quality channels to 1080p for you.
2) Must be connected to an Internet connection of 10Mbps and above to access to cloud recording feature and access to On Demand library.
There's no hard disk included in the Ultra box. They don't plan to allow users to connect external hard disk to do recordings, for now (cuz Ultra Box has one USB 3.0 port).

As for satellite dish, the LNB will change to DCSS type.

And here's the installation fee charges, which I've confirmed with Astro:

Monthly subscription rate	Installation Fee	24 months contract
>RM100 (excl. SST)	Free	Yes
<RM99.99 (excl. SST)	RM199	Yes
Doesn't matter	RM499	No contract

Cancel within contract period? RM1600 penalty charge.
*The monthly subscription rate shown above is apply as per primary subscription.
For instance, if you pay RM100 and above (excluding the RM50 per Multiroom subscription), then you're eligible for free installation.

This post has been edited by joshhd: Nov 7 2019, 11:29 PM

I've mentioned about this on my previous post:
DCSS was previously used only for certain MDUs (e.g. high rise buildings), but now, Astro is only using DCSS type on all new installations, including for landed houses so that PVR customers no need to lay and connect 2 cables, and experience signal conflicts between channels anymore.

Plus, you can connect multiple Astro boxes at your home (Multiroom) with only 1 cable coming from your satellite dish with the use of cable splitter.

This post has been edited by joshhd: Nov 8 2019, 01:26 AM

Err basically yes. Contact Astro to fix an appointment date for the installation. Although they haven't publicly launch yet, but they seems to accept upgrade applications now.

Hmm, I'm not sure about this. But better just let them know that you're already using 4K UHD TV so that you'll guarantee able to have access to UHD channels (provided the particular channel is not pay per view or require additional separate subscription). Yeah, lie to them 😈 Muahahaha...

But of cos, if watch UHD channels on a Full HD TV, later don't say "I don't see any difference compared to HD and UHD channels". I think that's the reason why Astro want to make sure of that. They wanna make sure only customers with UHD TV can access to UHD quality channels.

And tell them in advance that you have Internet of 10Mbps and above at home cuz they'll always remind you this.

This post has been edited by joshhd: Nov 8 2019, 09:12 AM

For Astro IPTV I'm not sure... Need to check with Astro.
Maybe it's available to upgrade for Astro DTH customers only for now.

What I know is, almost all can record now, including RTM and Media Prima channels. Except Astro UHD channel 780, where Record button doesn't appear on that channel.

Yes. That's because they change to DCSS type of LNB, and for your case, they use cable splitter to wire all Astro boxes around your home to get the job done. They no more using those dual/quad Universal LNB like what we all used to have years ago when installing PVR box.

If they find that signal strength drop a lot, they can install in-line amplifier to compensate the signal loss. But in normal case, even there's a little bit drop (maybe less than 2-3% drop), it won't affect much so don't worry.

This post has been edited by joshhd: Nov 8 2019, 11:57 AM

Read more at https://www.astro.com.my/beta-program/faq

Hmm... Perhaps you can try connect an external hard disk to the Ultra Box and tell us what's the result?

To be safe, the external hard drive may require to be formatted on Ultra Box for it to use for storing recordings and others stuff made by your Ultra Box. So make sure you have no important data inside (or if u have, go backup), and ready to be formatted just in case. And even if that's possible (or in the future), don't expect that you can view the recordings on computer as if like a usual MP4 video file 😂

This post has been edited by joshhd: Nov 8 2019, 12:07 PM

Woah, that's a nice clean feed. First time ever I see Astro just broadcast clean feed of a football match, on Astro Go.


When this 'standby info card' appears, the audio is a test tone.


Erm yeah, "clean" enough la. Just that "Go" logo on top right corner. But hey, there's no Astro SuperSport logo too.

It feels great to watch sports matches like this, where even general viewers can also view the 'standby' feed like this.
Hope Astro will do something like this again.
Btw on Astro Go, it show as Channel 1006.

The usual Astro set-top-box channels doesn't have this. Only Astro Go.



This post has been edited by joshhd: Nov 9 2019, 10:58 PM

I want to make a correction on my previous statement on this particular post.

You must use a 4K UHD TV or display device that supports 4K UHD resolution input, and also supports HDCP 2.2 to watch Astro UHD channels.
If you use non-UHD TVs (like Full HD TVs), tuning to Astro UHD channel on CH780 will result in HDCP error, while the audio will be played as usual.



It seems that UHD channels on Astro will be using HDCP 2.2 copy protection instead of the usual HDCP 1.3 or 1.4 version for HD channels.
So you must make sure your TV supports HDCP 2.2, or else when you tune to UHD channels, this message would appear.
Anyhow, Astro can decide if they want to transmit the UHD channel in the older HDCP 1.3 or 1.4 version...
But maybe due to the content showing on that channel, HDCP 2.2 may be compulsory to prevent copy protection, I'm not so sure about it but that would be my guess.
Because the commonly used HDCP versions (1.3 or 1.4) can be hacked and bypassed for copy protection, that's how HDCP 2 versions and above are introduced with more complicated technology to prevent copy protection.



This post has been edited by joshhd: Nov 24 2019, 03:40 PM

Try power off then power on the Ultra Box again.
If you're very sure that it can't be connected even with the correct password, try connecting to other WiFi network. Example if your router is dual band type (2.4GHz and 5GHz), try connect any one of it.
If still can't, try temporarily turn on WiFi hotspot on your phone for your Astro Ultra Box to connect it, see if it can connect successfully or not, then you'll know where the problem comes from.

Oh? HDCP 2.2? Hmmm... Okay then.
At least Astro can no longer use the same tactic as what they've been doing for the past 10 years; additional monthly HD service fee like +RM20-25/month.
They can't just convince all customers to buy new UHD TV

Today is 13 November, which is the official launch day of Astro Ultra Box. Let's see what Astro has to say first. But most probably I guess is no additional monthly fees, but maybe they might offer "per UHD channel" basis.

Yes. All beta testers will get free 1500 hours (4TB) of cloud recording for a period of 12 months. It is stated in their FAQ. https://www.astro.com.my/beta-program/faq